The California Report Magazine

KQED

Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.

  1. Jul 17

    Thrift Store Find Leads Reveals Musical Love Story; Cooking Class Creating Connectons for Hmong Youth

    Vinyl Album Found in San Francisco Contains Echoes of a Filipino American Love Story Jess Garcia loves perusing San Francisco thrift stores for treasures. One day, she came across a vinyl record titled "In Baghdad By the Bay: Cora and Santos Beloy," which piqued her curiosity. She rushed home to listen and was amazed at the sweet nostalgic quality of the voices she heard. When she looked for more information on the couple she couldn't find much, but had this feeling there must be more to their story. It turns out this Filipino American couple were "San Francisco famous" in the 1970s, playing a celebrated set in the Fairmount Hotel's Tonga Room among many other gigs. In this story from KQED’s Bay Curious podcast, reporter Asal Ehsanipour found out they were also larger than life figures in their local community. Hmong Cooking Class Gives Central Valley Youth a ‘Taste of Tradition’  Fresno is home to the second largest Hmong community in the United States, with over 80,000 residents in the Central Valley. In 1992, Kristy Xiong immigrated here from Thailand as a child and says she held on to her culture through traditional foods. Today she's teaching a monthly class that is helping young Hmong students cook these dishes to reconnect to their heritage. From the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative and KVPR, Esther Quintanilla takes us into the kitchen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  2. Jul 10

    Renowned Musician Finds Purpose on Skid Row; Silicon Valley's Forgotten Flower Farms

    This week on The California Report Magazine: What Skid Row Taught Acclaimed Violinist Vijay Gupta About Music When violinist Vijay Gupta joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic at just 19 years old, he was the youngest to ever take a chair in a major orchestra in the U.S. But despite that shining achievement, he was desperately unhappy. Now in his late 30s, Gupta has a new memoir out called Restrung. It explores how, after years of struggling to live up to other people’s expectations, he found his true voice working with homeless people on the streets of Skid Row. Reporter Steven Cuevas has this profile.   ⁠Life Lessons from a Game of Chess⁠ Visits with loved ones are a special time for people who are incarcerated in California. Families come from all over the state to see their loved ones for a short while, and it's one of the only opportunities incarcerated parents can connect with their kids. In this essay from the podcast Uncuffed, producer Fonuamana Fuahala recounts connecting with his son — who he hadn’t seen in years — over a game of chess.   When Chinese Flower Growers Helped the Bay Area Bloom Santa Clara County stretches from San Jose up through Palo Alto and into the surrounding foothills. Today, it’s an area known for sprawling tech campuses and suburban neighborhoods, but for a large part of the 20th century, this landscape looked very different. Some would say it was blooming. KQED’s Gabriela Glueck brings us this story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  3. Jul 3

    Students 'Podcasting Democracy'; Rock Opera Celebrates Pasadena

    ‘Podcasting Democracy’ Helps Constitution Come to Life for Teens As America gets ready to celebrate its 250th birthday, a new project called Podcasting Democracy is helping high school and middle school students engage with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Participants created a series of audio commentaries connecting how those founding documents still affect their lives today, and how they can use constitutional principles to create positive change in their own communities.The curriculum is free and available to teachers nationwide. It was written by KQED Education’s Rachel Roberson, who along with 17-year-old student Eumari King Perez sat down with host Sasha Khokha to talk about the project. Time-Traveling Rock Opera Celebrates Pasadena A new time traveling rock opera called Pasadena Right Here, Right Now imagines the city’s distant past, its far-off future and its fire-scarred present. Composer Russell Mark spent a year talking to dozens of locals from Pasadena and Altadena, who helped inspire the opera’s storyline. It begins in the Pasadena of the future. In the year 2125, a professor at Caltech develops a time machine to travel back to 2025 Pasadena. As reporter Steven Cuevas tells us, the multi-part song cycle blends rock instrumentation with chamber music, to create a love letter to the region.  Long Beach Man Faces Deportation to a  Country He’s Never Seen⁠ Since President Trump took office, his Administration has talked about deporting criminals,  even as they’ve mostly detained immigrants with no criminal background. But exactly who are those immigrants President Trump is calling the “worst of the worst?” KCRW’s Andrew Lopez met one Long Beach man who, despite spending the last 10 years turning his life around, is now facing a future in a new country— a place he’s never been.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  4. Jun 26

    How a 1956 Raid Became a Flashpoint for Queer Civil Rights; The Volunteers Helping at Immigration Court

    How a Pacifica Bar Became a Flashpoint for Queer Civil Rights The San Francisco Bay Area is known as one of the most LGBTQ+ friendly areas in the country but it wasn’t always this way. Back in 1956, the beachside city of Pacifica was the scene of a police raid at a local bar, known to be friendly to the queer community. Hazel’s Inn’s owner, Hazel Nikola had her liquor license revoked and was arrested along with 90 of her patrons. As Ana De Almeida Amaral reports for the podcast Bay Curious, the raid would be a blueprint for law enforcement over the next 15 years. ‘Like an Angel’: Meet the Helpers Working at Bay Area Immigration Court For decades, San Francisco was home to was Northern California’s principal immigration court. Over time, advocates built around it one of the most extensive immigrant-defense networks in the U.S. a web of nonprofit legal organizations, volunteer court companions, rapid-response groups and pro bono attorneys who help immigrants find their way through a system where they’re not guaranteed legal representation. But the Trump Administration has closed the court and by the end of this year, thousands of cases are expected to be transferred to Concord, about 30 miles to the northeast, where the immigration court is only a couple of years old and the support infrastructure around it is still developing. Sergio Jaime Lopez knows the importance of building up that network. He once stood in front of an immigration judge himself and is now one of many local advocates who are helping immigrants navigate the changing U.S.  immigration system.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  5. Jun 12

    College Grads vs. AI; Lodi Vineyards Pivot to New Crops; Fresno Students Head to Clarinet ‘Olympics’

    Recent Graduates Reflect on How AI Is Reshaping Their Future Over the past few weeks, several college commencement speakers who praised artificial intelligence were booed by graduates. As these graduates  enter an uncertain job market, they’re grappling not only with an unpredictable economy but also with the feeling that artificial intelligence is unstoppable. AI can impact whether or not you get your resume in front of a hiring manager or what career you decide to pursue. We hear from some recent California graduates and other students who talk about not whether  AI will impact them, but how.    As California’s Wine Industry Struggles, Some Lodi Grape Growers Pivot to New Crops California produces 80% of all American wines. But most wine grapes aren’t grown in places like Napa or Paso Robles. Most of them actually come from vineyards around one small city in San Joaquin County, Lodi. No matter where you are in Lodi, you’re always less than a 10-minute drive from a vineyard, but it’s no longer just the land of grapes. Orchards full of pistachios, almonds and olives are popping up all over the outskirts of Lodi. As Hannah Weaver reports, that’s because new challenges in the wine industry are pushing grape growers to try other crops. For This Quartet of Fresno State Musicians, a Chance to Play in South Korea  Every summer, a prestigious international music festival highlights an instrument that may not always take center stage: the clarinet. Students from universities around the world are invited to perform at Clarinetfest, and this summer, for the first time ever, some of those students will be coming from Fresno State. KVPR’s Samantha Rangel tells us how they came together to play, and what it means to represent the Central Valley.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.

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